Chinese Parliament Appoints Wang Yi As Foreign Minister

Wang, 69, is a career diplomat, administrator and politician with decades of experience as a diplomat representing China abroad going back to the 1980s. Before Tuesday's promotion, he served as the director of the office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, effectively making him China's top diplomat.

The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress parliament has announced the resignation of Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and has appointed Wang Yi as his successor.

Wang has already previously served as China's foreign minister for nearly a decade, taking up the job in March 2013 and holding it until December 30, 2022, after which he was replaced by Qin, 57, who held the post for just 205 days, the shortest tenure in the People's Republic's history.

Tuesday's shakeup also saw American-trained People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang, 65, removed after a five-year tenure and replaced by Chinese economist and monetary policy expert Pan Gongsheng, 60, who has also had prior research experience at Western universities including Cambridge and Harvard.

Media speculated intensely about Qin's whereabouts for nearly a month after he was not seen in public for weeks after meeting with Vietnamese, Russian and Sri Lankan diplomats in late June. Chinese officials cited health reasons to explain his absence, and emphasized that the Asian nation's "diplomatic activities are under way as usual."

Qin served as Chinese ambassador to the United States for 17 months between 2021 and early 2023, and as vice minister of foreign affairs between 2018 and 2021.

Tuesday's decision comes a day after a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo - the country's top decision-making body, on Monday.

Who is Wang Yi?

Wang is the third-longest serving foreign minister in the PRC's history, with his nine year, nine month tenure surpassed only by Qian Qichen (1988-1998) and Marshal Chen Yi (1958-1972).

Born in Beijing in 1953, Wang served in the Northeast Construction Army Corps in China's Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia, for eight years after graduating from high school in 1969. In 1977, he enrolled at Beijing International Studies University, one of China's most prestigious schools, studying Japanese. Joining the Communist Party in 1981 and graduating in 1982, he began his career as a diplomat, serving in the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo between 1989 and 1994. Fluent in Japanese and English, he would also become a visiting scholar at the Institute of Foreign Relations at Georgetown University between 1997 and 1998, concurrently with his work as director general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs.

Wang was promoted to Foreign Affairs vice minister in 2001, served as ambassador to Japan between 2004 and 2007, and director of the Taiwan Office of the CPC's Central Committee between 2008 and 2013.

The veteran diplomat became a member of the Politburo in October 2022.

During his first tenure as foreign minister between 2013 and late 2022, Wang proved instrumental in promoting Chinese President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping's international agenda, from the ambitious One Belt One Road infrastructure project, to the Asian nation's promotion of institutions like BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as alternatives to the US-led unipolar world order, to Beijing's advancement of its strategic cooperative relationship with Moscow.

In February 2023, on the one year-anniversary of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Wang outlined a 12-point peace plan, which proposed the cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and prisoners of war, a halt to unilateral sanctions, respect for sovereignty and rejecting the promotion of the security of some countries at the expense of others. President Putin expressed openness to discussing China's peace plan, but Ukraine and its Western sponsors rejected it out of hand, citing China's warm relationship with Russia.